“I saw many climbers in quite precarious situation hanging on the rope and their Sherpas struggling to pull them down,” he wrote.
In an update on May 21 he described seeing climbers in a “sleepy/zombie state”.
“They were shaking and crying causing a traffic jam.”
The string of mountaineers is the kind of phenomenon that has been causing mountaineers to rethink climbing Everest.
After a condensed summit window in 2019 caused similar conditions, which were captured in a photo as “Traffic Jam on Everest”, some have said Everest is too busy.
UK author Iain Cameron dubbed it the “worst kind of adventure capitalism”.
In a response shared via social media site X, glaciologist and researcher Cameron said it was not a mountain on his list.
“I’m fit and able and could probably afford it but I have zero desire to do so.”
Others described it as “ego tourism”, saying they couldn’t believe people would spend tens of thousands of dollars to freeze in a queue.
Poor visibility and a high-altitude rescue have caused a long rope queues down on approach to the summit this week.
On Tuesday six climbers fell on the mountain after a cornice collapsed.
A thin layer of ice just below the “Hillary Step” gave way, sending them tumbling down, Outside magazine reported.
While the rescue operation slowed climbs to a crawl, two of the six were still missing, unaccounted for.
On Wednesday the Himalayan Times named the missing men as Daniel Paul Peterson, 40, from the UK and Nepali Pas Tenji Sherpa, 23.
The confirmed deaths brings the confirmed fatality total to five for the 2024 season.
Last week two Mongolian mountaineers died on their descent from the summit, and on Monday a Romanian climber Gabriel Tabara was found dead at camp 3.
Dirty, dangerous and crowded: What is Everest really like
With an increasing number of permits and operators, the impact of mountain tourism is being felt by all on the way to Everest.
Ealrier this year Kanchha Sherpa, 91, the last surviving member of the 1953 Tenzing and Hillary expedition, said that the mountain was more messy and crowded than he imagined.
“It is very dirty now. People throw tins and wrappings after eating food. Who is going to pick them up now?” Kanchha told Associated Press. “Some climbers just dump their trash in the crevasse, which would be hidden at that time but eventually it will flow down to base camp as the snow melts and carries them downward.”
Last year mountain guide Tenzi Sherpa described arriving at camp 2 as a disgrace.
“The dirtiest camp I have ever seen,” the Nepali mountaineer called it. He called on the Nepalese Tourism Ministry to “punish” high-altitude litterbugs.
The high number of climbers tackling Everest each season is often blamed on greedy expedition companies.
Journalist and author of Everest Inc. Will Cockrell says getting to the summit has “stopped being a mountaineering challenge and started becoming a guiding challenge”.
Although the guiding industry and mountaineering tech has lowered the entry ( and raised the price) of a climb, it isn’t any easier than it was in 1953.
“Everest stretches everyone to their limit. They may not be able to do what Reinhold Messener did at his limit [climbing solo without supplemental oxygen] but they are being challenged,” Cockrell told the Herald.
However, the seasoned climber is not sure if he would climb Everest today.
“I’ve been a mountaineer most of my adult life. I don’t know if I could climb Everest.”
Now he thinks he never will.
